Penultimate
by Brian1
Summary: The Kanto League convene in secret, revealing to Misty and the current gym leaders of a terrible premonition made by Sabrina, concerning Ash. PostAscension


**Penultimate**

Misty did not like having to deal with The Pokémon League. She understood that, since she was technically the Cerulean City gym leader, she had certain obligations that were expected of her. She was obligated to update the league whenever a trainer defeated her, fill out reacquisition papers monthly, and uphold the ideals of the League.

Unfortunately, she was also required to attend all meetings. In the past, she had managed to make a variety of well worded excuses, but this was some sort of high level emergency, something unfamiliar to the relatively inexperienced gym leader. The postscript to the letter she received also caused her a significant amount of worry:

_Misty, this concerns Ash_, the note had read, and it had been signed by none other than Lance of the Elite Four. Lance, she knew, would not have written a personal, handwritten note unless it was something that truly deserved her attention.

She sat at her designated chair, colored dark blue and emblazoned with the crest of Cerulean City on the back. The chairs, twelve in all, surrounded a table that had the seal of the Kanto region in the middle of it.

"What was so urgent that you sent Dragonites to retrieve us?" Blaine asked, his arms crossed and his features showing signs of annoyance.

"I agree, I could have easily gotten here by flying on Fearow," added Gary, still clad in his lab coat. "On top of that, I'm not really even a gym leader. I just took over Viridian Gym because no one else would."

There was hushed silence as the Elite Four sat in their respective chairs, with Lance visibly looking pale and lacking sufficient sleep.

"We've gathered all of you here for a reason," Lance said, looking around the table knowingly. "You're the best and brightest of the Kanto Region. Each of you represents a certain element that you excel at more than anyone else, which was why your gyms were officially sanctioned by the league."

Koga growled. "Get to the point, Lance."

"Koga, do not be rude," Erika said sternly, glaring at the poison-specialist. "Continue, Lance."

Lance wearily rubbed at his temples. "What I mean to say is that we have a problem on our hands. No, that's not quite the right wording for it. Let me repeat: this is the biggest _crisis_ in the recorded history of The Pokémon League."

Flint remained stoic, his expression hidden behind dark sunglasses. "What is it?"

Lt. Surge scoffed, looking sour. "This is pointless. It's probably nothing! Lance is just wasting our time! Little guy doesn't even know the meaning of crisis!"

He stood up, eyeing the rest of the bunch with a menacing look. "I don't even know why I bother attending these things!"

His tirade was silenced as he started floating in the air, an aura of blue surrounding him. "What in the hell-?"

"Sit," was the simply command, and he was placed back into his chair, all the while looking bewildered at being handled in such a way.

"I would appreciate it if you did not cause such a ruckus again. Our time is running short, and I have information that I think all of you, especially Misty, would like to hear," Sabrina said coolly, her eyes glowing blue with psychic energy.

Misty blinked at the mention of her name. "Me?"

"You have the floor, Sabrina. Tell them – show them – what you revealed to me," said Lance, returning to his seat.

"I agree," she said. "As you all know, I am the most powerful psychic in the Kanto region, and perhaps the entire world. When I was a small child my powers developed to a degree beyond that of any known psychic at the time. As a side effect of my powers, I've been plagued with premonitions of future events."

She pointed to Misty. "For example, I foretold the unfortunate death of your mother and former gym leader, Rose Waterflower, when I was only ten years old."

Misty closed her eyes at the faint memory. The only thing she could remember clearly was that it was _raining_ that day.

"I have seen the future countless times, but only recently has the future disturbed me so greatly. This is why I asked Lance to have us all convene here today," she said, her eyes glowing.

Blue energy surged out of her and into all of them, establishing a psychic link in order to continue. "This is what I have seen."

They were treated to a series of images and sounds playing in their heads, showing them a _reality_ so real that they could felt disoriented at seemingly being transported to places they had never seen or been to before.

Misty felt herself dizzying, feeling herself moving from scene to scene, and seeing things that she did not want to believe.

"What is the _meaning _of this?" Gary said, unable to cope with what he was seeing.

All Misty saw was _death_. Pokémon and humans alike, dead on the streets, their eyes showing no signs of life…forests charred and blackened…decaying cities that were deadly still…no sounds, no cries, nothing but _death_ and decay everywhere.

"This is what will happen. What I will show you is the _reason_," Sabrina said, her voice straining. "_Remember _this. Look carefully at what I am saying, what I am showing you, and what will happen. Burn it into your memory."

And then she visibly cried out as an image appeared before her, that of a black haired boy, a look of defiance on his relatively boyish features.

"ASH!" cried Misty, trying to reach out to him in vain.

To her horror, Ash looked like he had been shot at least twice, as he was cradling a heavily bleeding arm. His clothes were torn and ripped in several places, and his ever present hat was gone, leaving his hair caked with dirt and blood instead. He was in a defensive posture, his less injured arm holding a pokéball.

The image cleared up, the previously hazy fog that had surrounded it suddenly being lifted. There was a collective gasp as his opponent, or rather, opponents, were revealed.

He was fighting what appeared to be himself, or something that looked eerily similar to Ash. Flanking the second Ash were facsimiles of May, Brock, and…Misty?

Misty's voice lowered to a whisper. "Why do I see…myself…?"

Then there was fire. Kanto was burning. No city or town had been spared from the devastation: the bird's eye view of Kanto revealed to them all that the entire continent was ablaze. Blaine, who had been around fire all his life and normally would not even flinch at such a thing, could not believe his eyes. Fire, he had learned, could not grow that immense over such a huge continent, no matter how powerful it was: it was scientifically impossible.

And then the image of Kanto faded into a black nothingness. The collected members assumed that that meant that the images were finished.

As if reading their minds, which she was doing, Sabrina continued, "This is not the end of my premonition. Or, to phrase it more accurately, this is _the end_."

The black nothingness was all they could see, except for themselves and Sabrina, who was now floating in the air. "This nothingness you see before you, this void…is what I see. This is what will become of our _reality_ when the _Ascension_ occurs."

"_Ascension_?" asked Gary, mystified over the term.

"The truth, Gary," a familiar voice replied. "The truth, as hard as it may be to believe, about everything we have come to know about our very lives here. It is an event that will reveal the final choice that Ash Ketchum, of all people, will have to make."

The voice stepped out of the shadows, revealing himself to be none other than Professor Samuel Oak. He, much like Lance, had looked like he had not gotten enough sleep, as there were dark circles underneath his eyes.

"I always knew, from the moment I met Ash all those years ago when I myself was still a young boy, that he was special…different from the other trainers I had encountered," he continued, taking out a pair of glasses from his pocket and cleaning them.

"That goes for Misty too. She's always been an integral part to the Chosen One's destiny. If not for her, he would've died on the Orange Islands," he said, putting on the glasses and taking a seat next to his grandson.

Misty interrupted, "I don't understand where you're going with this, Professor Oak. All I know is that there's another Ash, another me…and Kanto…Kanto was burning!"

"It appears that the very fabric of our _reality _is breaking down. From the secret research I've conducted with my fellow professors, I've come to _realize_ a few important facts about our world. That is to say, our world was the first one, the oldest of all of them. The moment Ash started on his journey I found evidence that _tangent_ realities had been created. Not before, but only after. There are millions, perhaps billions, of various realities where there is an Ash Ketchum, and a Misty Waterflower, and a Samuel Oak, and so on."

"It came to my attention that the energy holding our realities separated was weakening. Using special equipment and Sabrina, courtesy of the League, I was able to tap into a few of those alternate realties and see for myself what had gone wrong in them."

Sabrina was now holding herself, eyes closed and silent as she let the professor do the rest of the talking.

"In many of them, Ash, for some unfathomable reason at the time, was dying in far too many of those realities. He was either being murdered in cold blood, driven to suicide, or even becoming a killer himself," the professor said, looking _disturbed_ about the very memory.

"Something, or someone, is doing something to cause all of this. _Ascension_ is happening in another reality as we speak, and it is nearly done. We cannot allow our Ash, the original Ash, to be found by those others that you all saw in the vision. If he does, then they will find him and kill him. Without him, our world will burn until there is nothing left."

The Professor turned to Misty, his face both grim and solemn. "We need you to find him. All of The Pokémon League's equipment and Pokémon cannot track him. Even Sabrina has been unable to locate him. There seems to be greater, malevolent force at work, severely impeding our abilities. For all intents and purposes, we've _lost_ him. You, on the other hand…you know the way."

Misty trembled, overwhelmed with all the information in the last half-hour. "What can I do? How do you know all of this?"

"You can sense him, can't you? Even now, even as we speak…you have a connection to him greater than any power in our world," he said softly.

She nodded, realizing that what she had been feeling for the last two years was the connection or whatever it was that bonded her to him. Misty, on some level, had known this all along, but had never consciously acknowledged it until now.

"Let's find Ash," Misty said quietly, desperate to keep her composure in front of her contemporaries. She had to show strength, especially if she was going to possibly face something that would destroy her very world, and everyone she cared about in it.

"The seven gym leaders will accompany you in secret, as to not reveal ourselves prematurely to the enemy. Their combined power will protect you and Ash until we can get you two to a safe location. Lance and I are already working on contacting the gym leaders in Johto and Hoenn, but for now this will be all we can do," Professor Oak said, putting a comforting hand on her shoulder.

Misty nodded, standing up despite how heavy she suddenly felt. It was no surprise: the weight of the world rested on her shoulders, after all.

"I'll find you, Ash, and I won't let anything happen to you. Please, be safe…"

**End**


End file.
